If I were to buy a Mac (most likely a Macbook Pro or a 27" iMac), it would come with Mac OSX Lion. Apparently Apple decided that Lion should be more like iOS rather than MacOS in terms of interface. Two questions: Would you still recommend buying a Mac with OSX Lion installed? What are your personal experiences with Lion as an OS?

I don't find it "more like iOS" in terms of interface. You shouldn't believe all crap that you can read on internets and instead should always try everything yourself - go to your local Apple store, try it out, ask questions the people who work there if you don't understand something, it won't cost you any $$$.

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heh. just noticed my MBP is still on v10.6.8 (Snow Leopard)... I've opted not to upgrade to v10.7.x branch (Lion) until I'm 100% positive it won't cause any software/driver issues with my professional DJ software installed on it (main use for computer) which is Traktor Scratch Prov2.1.1 which I'll have to update to v2.1.2 soonEdit: seems I have already upgraded to v2.1.2 couple months back.

I'd never encourage downgrading to a MAC unless all you do is browse the internet and want to pay too much to do so. You're obviously aware that Lion is a pretty broken OS, what limited options you would have don't currently work with the current OS. There aren't any Windows based OS's that can't do the same thing for cheaper. There is not 'but', there just isn't a Windows OS that can't do the same thing and actually do it whereas OSX can't currently, in terms of that. On top of that, 99% of software is made specifically for windows machines where, with the same specs, can easily run and more.

Macs are for your grandparents. It can do the same thing as a windows machine but takes more work cause the OS is buggy, but you can make it work for them. Personal use, if you're on this site then you realize that right now, Mac **** is so hard to work with you'd rather use Windows or Linux, cause it's simpler and easier to work with.

I've played a bit with Lion on my work Mac. The two main things you'll notice, IMO, is that by default the mouse's scroll [wheel|ball|pad] goes the "wrong" way vertically, but this can be easily changed in the preferences. The other thing is that your applications will remember which windows they had open when you reopen them.

On a more technical note, Apple threw out Samba for doing filesharing with Windows computers and instead wrote their own package. I haven't noticed any especial problems dealing with actual Windows fileservers, but I've got a Samba server that Lion won't talk to.

I first bought a Mac in January 2008 not long after the first service release for Leopard was released. I bought it because Vista was such a disaster and because I got so fed up with dealing with Windows in my day job, I wanted to get away from it and not have to deal with its nonsense when at home. My gaming days were pretty much over when I bought the thing and I'd lost interest in overclocking and the like. I've been using Macs at home ever since with each version of OS X since Leopard. I administer a Windows network with 1300 computers including around 70/80 Macs and 2200 users for a living so I think I'm fairly well versed in both OS X and Windows. I'm saying all this so my post doesn't come across as a trolling post like a previous poster's.

Lion has some iOS like elements such as the kinetic scrolling, the disappearing scroll bars and launchpad, not to mention apps saving their states but all of these things can be disabled. That said, it's still OS X. It's still a desktop operating system. It has more or less everything the previous versions of OS X had before it, even if some have changed, been made better or worse depending on what you look at. Lion is no more iOS for the desktop than Windows 8 will be Windows Phone 7 for the desktop.

I personally think the major disappointment with Lion is that when all is said and done, not much has changed since Snow Leopard or for that matter, Leopard. It's still a good operating system and it was probably worth the money I paid for it if only to keep a supported OS. My advice would be: If you want to buy a Mac, don't be put off about it having Lion installed. It'll still do whatever you want it to do.

I love Lion. I could never go back to Snow Leopard. Launchpad is the most visible nod to iOS but I don't use it (it is easily ignored). Trackpad functionality is absolutely fantastic. Mission control and full screen apps are both killer features.

I run Lion on the following and it scales beautifully:

- 2011 11" MacBook Air- 2010 Mac mini (HTPC)- 2010 27" iMac (work)

My 2006 15" MacBook Pro is still running Snow Leopard as it is not compatible with Lion. Snow Leopard seems so archaic now. I bought the 11" MBA to replace the MBP and the MBA with Lion is leaps and bounds above the MBP.

I will admit that multiple displays and full screen apps don't work well with Lion as far as I am concerned. Once you full screen an app the second display shots nothing but the linen background. Fail.

I personally use Lion and a MBP for both my job and my music and couldn't be happier. It does everything I could possibly need it to, and pretty well at that. Those who claim that Mac OS X Lion is not powerful enough for even the most demanding power users are most likely just inexperienced with it as an OS.

That said, some of the changes in Lion seem a little thoughtless to me. The reversed scrolling? Silly. The launchpad? More silly. The way multiple monitors works with Mission Control/Spaces really bugs me too. For example, if you choose to go fullscreen with an app/video, the screen on the 2nd monitor will become completely unusable, as it's apparently linked to the first screen for some reason. If they decoupled the two monitors, made it so going fullscreen on an app in screen one didn't create a useless screen on screen two, and made it so you could switch between both monitors desktops and full screen apps separately, we'd really be talking.

Other than that it's fantastic. Performance is great, Safari under Lion seems to be the best browsing experience out of any desktop platform on the strength of the gestures alone, and it's just as powerful a tool as any Windows box.

Now that I've used it, my paranoia has passed a bit. I still don't like certain things, but I've learned to adapt.

The weird, in-between issue is Mission Control. It's really good at what it does, but it's not a valid substitute for Exposé, particularly when dealing with an app with multiple windows. I used to be able to press a function key and see full previews of every window so I can tell what's what. Now if I go into Mission Control, I have to see ALL my open apps and when I pick an app, it overlaps the windows. Uh, durr? on what planet is THAT an improvement?

Launchpad requires meddling about manually, but that's really keeping in tune with iOS, and you can still dock your Applications folder and use it just like in Snow Leopard, and never use Launchpad. That's fine.

The backwards scrolling is reversible, but I would suggest that Apple only enable backwards scrolling for its Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad and leave my damned MX518 alone. It's not rocket surgery.

Otherwise, I think Finder is a vast improvement over SL - it remembers how I had a folder set (icons, list, etc.) and actually respects that, more or less. Performance is about like Snow Leopard - the days of "faster on the same hardware" are over; OS X is where it needs to be performance-wise, unless you're trying to play Starcraft II.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

On modern hardware, I suppose. On the old Macbook 2,1 I'm using it's noticeably slower, but then again that's about the oldest and slowest hardware supported, and probably won't be in the next rev of OSX.

I can tell you based on my experience with a Hackintosh latitude D620, which has the same basic hardware (GM945 chipset, 2GHz Core2 Duo, GMA 950 graphics) that it's definitely not fast on that hardware.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

derFunkenstein wrote:I can tell you based on my experience with a Hackintosh latitude D620, which has the same basic hardware (GM945 chipset, 2GHz Core2 Duo, GMA 950 graphics) that it's definitely not fast on that hardware.

A better GPU would help. Lion runs very well on my Core 2 Duo 2.4 with a 320M.

Everybody that I work with loves the Lion UI but hates the performance relative to Snow Leopard. I would say if you're concerned about pretty features and have decent hardware go with Lion otherwise downgrade to Snow Leopard. I'm using an old MB 3.1 running Snow Leopard and I don't think it would handle Lion very well, hell the touchpad doesn't handle anything more than 2 fingers at a time. Limitation in the hardware on my end but I'm sure a newer MBP would result in a better touchpad experience.

-Playing shooters on a console is like doing brain surgery with an ice-cream scoop-

I've been pretty happy with Lion, for the most part, except for one thing: Spaces. How they could screw up a major feature so badly is beyond me. But everything else works just fine. I've even gotten used to the reversed scroll direction with surprising ease.